© 2017 Martin Zafirov, PhD Student, New Bulgarian University (F29144)
Edited by: Yara Mohamed, Mona Timor Shehata
Published by: Ahmed Mohamed Hassan
The specific features that characterise multinational companies set new requirements for their leadership approach. Nowadays, management is mostly based on expanding and providing the existing management skills, values and practices in a global aspect by using corporate communications and interactions at a global level. In the context of what was already mentioned, it is precisely the culture which is the resource in a company which could be used to intensify the economic and management efficiency. The necessity of taking into account and balancing (harmonising) the cultural diversity is also present in this environment, because this is an important factor related to achieving the goals set by the company. Most large organisations nowadays look for leaders who can easily and effectively move between countries and cultures, accept dispatching tasks, understand heterogeneous markets, and manage different teams.
In her article “What the Best Cross-Cultural Managers Have in Common”
- They consider change as normal, positive, and a source of opportunities.
- They rely on creative, outsider thinking and adaptation to confront new situations.
- They are able to reinvent themselves and experiment with new identities as they move into new settings.
- They become experts at the subtle and emotional aspects of transition.
- They easily learn and use new ways of thinking, taking risks that lead to self-efficacy.
Global cosmopolitans don’t need training in cultural competence. They have already developed an awareness of their own cultural worldview, a positive attitude toward cultural differences, knowledge of different cultural practices and the ability to understand and communicate with people whose backgrounds differ from their own. The specific characteristics possessed by this type of cosmopolitan leaders make them highly valued and sought after. So it is completely logical that Brimm asks the question how to find such leaders.
Identification is an important step in the process of determining the new type of leaders. Conventional CVs cannot reveal the depth of experience accrued in early mobility. Thus, it is necessary to research which employee in the respective organisation or applicant for a job in it has lived abroad, immersed in another culture. Getting to know their journey and the cultures they have met is necessary for a better understanding of the qualities and the capabilities they possess. The leader should find out who in their organisation or applicant pool has lived abroad and take the time to ask about and listen to the story of their journey. The leader should prompt them to assess and discuss the knowledge and skills they acquired through those experiences. The leader might even help them identify some strengths they didn’t even know they had. Even when international activity is listed on a resume, leaders who belong to newer generations should want to explore the exact nature of the personal and professional experience of the employees and applicants of the company.
The new conditions in which the business activity of the multinational company will be taking places also sets other additional requirements for the leadership of these organisations. These requirements may be presented in the most compact way as follows:
- The leader should care about his or her team and the organisation, even if this requires to present the circumstances (even if they are painful) in their real form (not protected) and should require of them decisions which are as good as possible.
- The leader does not have smoothing conflicts as his or her main task (not acting quickly towards solving them). On the contrary, his or her task is to provoke them to surface and reveal all of their depth and nature i.e. the leader is the one who breaks the comfort by asking serious questions, the goal of which is to maximise prosperity, not comfort.
- The leader allows (does not stop) the outside threat by stimulating the collective intelligence at all levels for implementing the processes of change and adaptation.
- The leader encourages the exchange of roles (by not taking them for granted), because this develops new relationships and points of view.
- The leader easily frees themselves of these norms (by not succumbing to their collective momentum and apparent stability) which practice suggests that they are dying out.
List of References:
- Brimm, L., What the Best Cross-Cultural Managers Have in Common, published on: 29 June 2016, available at: https://hbr.org/2016/06/what-the-best-cross-cultural-managers-have-in-common.
- [1] Brimm, L., “What the Best Cross-Cultural Managers Have in Common”, published on: 29 June 2016, available at: https://hbr.org/2016/06/what-the-best-cross-cultural-managers-have-in-common